The big news for G5 during Q3 (July to September) was this it was the first time that revenue from its true free-to-play games exceeded that from its previous model of providing a free download with the majority of the game locked behind a single purchase paywall.

However, revenue during Q3 was $3.4 million (SEK 21.9 million), down 9 percent year-on-year.

The company made an operating loss during the period of $760,000 (SEK 4.9 million).

This was mainly because of higher marketing costs, higher operational costs in terms of running F2P games, and a one-time write-down of $380,000 in terms of its legacy paywall games.

In addition, during Q3, the company's cummulative game download total reached 125 million.

Change of tone

"User retention and monetization is higher in free-to-play games, and so we are actively promoting our free-to-play games to our existing unlockable games player base," said CEO Vlad Suglobov.

"This to some extent cannibalizes on the sales of unlockable games, as players migrate to free-to-play games.

"At the same time, the market for unlockable game experiences increased competition and increased quality demands of regular players, and average sales per unlockable game on iOS were deteriorating during the first half of 2013, then bottomed out and stabilized in Q3.

"Revenue generated by free-to-play games continued to increase."

G5 Entertainment ended the quarter with available cash of $5.3 million.

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.

Your headline is wrong.G5's Q3 2013 sales were down 9% yoy, NOT their FY 2013 numbers! The company does not give a guidance for the full year but judging from the first nine months, their 2013 sales will be up yoy!

Important information

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. By continuing to use our site, you consent to Steel Media's
privacy policy.

Steel Media websites use two types of cookie: (1) those that enable the site to function and perform as required; and (2) analytical cookies which anonymously track visitors only while using the site. If you are not happy with this use of these cookies please review our Privacy Policy to learn how they can be disabled. By disabling cookies some features of the site will not work.